Posted By Jon Cope On November 15, 2011 @ 3:05 pm In Football | No Comments

It’s the question of the week, ‘How have the Dolphins turned it around?’ In a span of eight days, the team has gone from winless to a team with consecutive victories by double digits, not an easy thing in today’s NFL. On Dolphins Monday, The Finsiders talked to several players and Coach Sparano about the team’s turnaround.

Wide Receiver Davone Bess

[1]Question: On mindset that he helps provide the younger players with during tough times….

Davone Bess: “Obviously the first half of the season didn’t turn out the way that we expect. We know from here on out we got our work cut out for us, we just got to keep on winning as many games as possible. We know that we are the only ones that can get us out of this mess so as time goes on we got to keep fighting and most importantly stay together. There’s been many situations in the past where the media or another team or another teammate have made guys spread apart and start pointing the finger at each other and tear a team apart from the inside out. So we definitely (didn’t) want to have that and everybody’s buying into what the coaches are saying staying positive keep pushing, ‘don’t worry about the last play, go to the next one’.”

Cornerback Jonathan Wade- The team’s good luck charm?

Question- On the Dolphins not losing since signing Wade on November 1st.

Jonathan Wade: “Mr. Ireland says that to me in the locker room, he just stops and he looks (at me)..and says ‘I wonder if that’s a coincidence’, and I’m like I don’t know, but I’ll take it.”

While Wade has been a nice contributor on the active roster in the past two games, he obviously hasn’t been the only reason for the turnaround. Later in the interview, he explained how the Fins have been a team that has stayed together through adversity.

Question: What was your reaction when you first entered the locker room of the Dolphins and 0-7 and saw how this team was staying together during the tough time?

Jonathan Wade: “Completely threw me for a loop. You would’ve thought the team was undefeated”

[2]Head Coach Tony Sparano

A man that definitely deserves credit for the team continuing to play hard is the head coach, Tony Sparano. During his weekly chat with The Finsiders, Sparano showed that he has his superstitions, as most coaches do: “I’m still wearing the Breast Cancer Awarness Hat…and all that good stuff, that’s the way we’re rolling”

While some who nitpick would say that the team didn’t start winning until November (after Breast Cancer Awareness Month ended), those close to the team all indicate that the turnaround started during the late October week of practice leading up to the Giants game.

Finally, for those who believe in karma, the Dolphins began winning following the Dolphins Cycling Challenge which raised over $950,000 for Cancer research, in memory of the late, great Jim “Mad Dog” Mandich. On the final day of the cycling challenge, Nov. 6th, the Dolphins team took the field and came away with a performance that would have made the former tight end scream “Awwwwright Miami” on more than one occasion in a 31-3 win over the Chiefs. On that weekend where the Dolphins honored Mandich, the former Dolphins tight end and broadcaster who wore #88, the Dolphins current tight ends combined for a total 88 receiving yards.